Update: Physical Setting- Pollution Comparison

Last Semester, I commented on the relationship between Xi'an's physical setting and its air quality issues. However, I did not post a photo highlighting this phenomena. So, below are two photos taken from a footbridge near my house.



Notice the Qin Ling mountains in the background are visible on a day with good air quality while even some of the foreground buildings fade away on a bad air quality day.

The Elephant in the Room

As my Chinese language skills become more refined and complex, a new tactic for improvement has emerged- talking to strangers in the numerous late night establishments open in Xi'an. In many ways this is the counterpart to my formal morning classes, where I get to use the new words and structures I've learned in a practical and applied way. I also get an inroad into the psyche and culture of the modern Chinese. Last week, as I was sitting at a table of 6 Chinese men and women playing dice games and chatting about our likes and dislikes, one of the men at the table asked me if I liked the movie American Pie. I told him that when I was a teenager I watched it quite a bit because the topic of the movie was teenage boys looking for sex in the confusing world of high school. When I mentioned the word, sex, he immediately told me that they do not talk about sex and that it was impolite to even mention the topic of the movie he brought up and clearly liked. I told him that this was the truth and to leave out the most common thread unifying the movie takes all of the meaning away. He said it doesn't matter, sex just isn't talked about.

This conversation is emblematic of the contradictions inherent in modern Chinese society. Sex is a taboo, a dirty little secret to be kept in the privacy of one's home, not a part of public discussion. While at the same time, sex is also a central part of public policy. With the One Child Policy, China as a county exerts

the most influence on the personal sex lives of its citizens and with good reason. Unchecked population growth in the already largest country in the world would be destabilising to say the least. To address this issue, condom usage is also promoted by the government. Underneath the city wall is a public park that is a popular place among young Chinese couples. All along the footpaths are public service advertisements encouraging the couples to use condoms in order to avoid disease and pregnancy. This is certainlya proactive approach to addressing the fundamental issue of population. Sex, for both reproduction and pleasure seeking, after all is a central component of the human experience. It is impossible to repress.

At the other end of the spectrum of are the dichotomies of pornography and prostitution in China. Both pornography and prostitution are illegal in China, however the level of acceptability varies greatly. In China, the government takes active steps to block the availability of Internet pornography. In one fell swoop in 2007, the government blocked over 30,000 pornographic websites from access. Although their ability to fully exclude the most popular usage of the Internet remains to be see. There are no sexual magazines, or videos, and the idea of a “sex shop” are almost virtually nonexistent most places in China. Prostitution is also illegal but the attitude is much more permissive. Prostitution is available at all levels of society ranging from street side “hair salons” to high end live-in mistresses with all you could imagine in between. At the high end, often married men with money will finance the entire lifestyle of a young woman for the opportunity to come knocking on her door when ever he wants. The term for these women is er nai, which means second milk. I have even been told that some extremely wealthy and powerful Chinese men will house their er nai in the United States and that there is even a town in Los Angeles that has a large concentration of them. Massage parlors, karaoke places, and some bars also provide sex for sale. However, despite their clearly obvious purposes and their illegality, as long as they do their business in private, brothels are allowed to operate with little or no interference.

Hospitals for sexual and reproductive health also abound. To address the fact the the topic is of some embarrassment and is difficult for many to talk about, hospitals have aggressive advertising campaigns. Toilet paper is not provided at most places of business, and thus it is the job of the customer to come prepared. One reproductive health hospital has taken to printing its messages as well as its prices on free packets of tissues. I almost always take them because they are convenient and free but I never actually took out a dictionary and read the “menu” until a few days ago. The standard rate for an abortion is 50 yuan ($7) and contraceptive pills are 40 yuan ($5.50). Also available are a variety of cosmetic surgeries. The cost of “returning virginity” is 200 yuan ($28) while the cost of a “vagina narrowing” is 400 yuan ($57). Also available for men are circumcision, erectile dysfunction medicine, and fertility drugs. However none of the prices are listed on the male side of the tissue package. The main users of these facilities are sex workers. So, it may seem that even though sex is not a topic of discussion amongst anyone considering themselves respectable. It is clearly the elephant in the room that no one is talking about.

Back to the East

Welcome back to Silk Road East, my personal blog about all thing's Xi'an, China, and Me. I hope that you enjoy the new selections and don't forget to browse through the old if you haven't had a chance to read them all. My first two weeks back in Xi'an have been full of spontaneous and wonderful experience and I would like to share some of them with you. So with out further ado the newest entry in Silk Road East....

Travel for many is a passion. Changing places and faces brings the color and vibrancy to life that pushes us to discover and explore what is just beyond the horizon. For me, traveling to China provides a sense of newness that is reminiscent of a child's perception of the world. Everything is outside the realm of prior experience, thus allowing you to through out all previous assumption and soak up simply what "is."

Now that I have returned to Xi'an, I still feel this sense of wonder but I am now in a place that I am familiar with. I have a life here complete with friends, an apartment, a long list of great restaurants and markets that I frequent. But perhaps, the most thrilling feeling is knowing enough of the language to feel comfortable going to new places by myself. Without a basic knowledge of the language it is easy to feel separate from your surroundings and that isolation can be one of the toughest parts of being here. But now, the gateway has been opened into the lives of Chinese people. This trip, I arrived in Xi'an greeted by a snow storm and it turned what can be a drab city into a place of subtle beauty. I decided to spent the day walking around to the place I spend my free time and see them in this new way.

In my first few days here, I was lucky enough to see Xi'an in the snow and my day out walking the snow dusted streets and parks is very much emblematic of how I've become comfortable with life here. As, I strolled on the banks of the central lake at Lian Hu park snapping pictures of the snow topped pagodas when a snow ball landed behind me. I turned to find three little girls laughing and hiding behind some tables. I told them I was a baseball player who can throw very fast and that they might not want to take me on. Their response, a volley of snowballs. I put my camera in my backpack made a few snowballs a begun the fight. Upon seeing this a whole field of kids on a snow day decided to join in the fight again the foreigner. I retreated to the top of a big rock, dodging the snowballs from about 15 kids. I took up my post and rained down snowballs on them all the while using my umbrella as a shield. After about 5 minutes or so they realized what I meant when I said I was a baseball player and gradually retreated out of my throwing range. I truly was the king of the mountain.

Life is unexpected and going to a new place makes that fact all the more obvious. This is one of the greatest gifts that my experiences in China have given me because it has allowed me to see the world again as a child does- to take a chance, step out into the unknown, and find out what is on the other side of the horizon.